IPhone 4.0's upcoming release has rumors swirling that it might be able to handle video conferencing.

Another weekend, another juicy Apple (News - Alert) rumor. What else were you planning on doing this weekend?

The rumors, according to industry observer Chris Rawson, take their cue from "faceplate photos to code embedded in the iPhone SDK itself."

Silicon Republic has a picture purporting to be from a friend of a friend inside Apple, showing a high-def iPhone (News - Alert) where "the handset would probably come with the same powerful processor as the iPad - the 1GHz custom A4 processor that can go up against the Snapdragon processor that the Google (News - Alert) Nexus One and the forthcoming HTC Evo are using."

Rawson tracks this latest rumor from site Redmond Pie, saying it "tends toward the weaker end of the spectrum as far as evidence goes: UK mobile provider O2 has listed 'Video Calls' as a 'Key Feature' of the forthcoming iPhone, with pricing for video calling listed as identical to standard phone calls."

That is thin gruel as evidence goes, but we all know it takes less than that when the rumors can include Cupertino's finest

"Third-party sellers regularly advertise features for Apple's products well in advance of their actual release based on a 'best guess' approach without any verifiable foreknowledge of the devices," Rawson reminds us, noting that Best Buy's recent page update listing i7 processors for the upcoming MacBook Pro update "is a perfect example -- so this latest update from O2 by no means confirms the presence of video conferencing capabilities in the next iteration of the iPhone."

Aha, it doesn't deny it, either, we can hear you say. No, you're right, it doesn't. You've got us there.

Product Reviews notes that "A recent screenshot looking at the background processes for the recently unveiled iPhone 4.0 operating system has leaked some shocking information, this is because there is a background processor called 'iChatAgent'.

"Although this is currently unconfirmed," Product Reviews says, "it appears as if this background process could be for the popular Apple iChat software, this could bring video calling functionality to all iPhone OS 4.0 compliant devices."

"One thing is certain," Rawson says: "Given all the rumors that have been swirling around already, which will surely accelerate over the next few months, if the next iPhone doesn't have video conferencing capabilities in it, the internet rage is going to be pretty profound."

He overestimates the attention span of the average rumor-monger. Within a week nobody will care.